


Charon and Hypnos Get High Together

by OhNoHello



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hypnos' high takes a turn, Marijuana, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Recreational Drug Use, Self-Worth Issues, Sibling Love, high fic, things get a little heavy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28441809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhNoHello/pseuds/OhNoHello
Summary: Charon and Hypnos take a break and get high¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Relationships: Charon & Hypnos (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 27
Kudos: 148





	Charon and Hypnos Get High Together

**Author's Note:**

> I have nothing to say for myself

Hypnos rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet as he waited at the dock. A small pleasant smile on his face and a song in his heart. He had worked hard, he deserved a little break for a minute. Or five. Or 30. How about an hour, an hour wasn’t too long? 

He knew he’d be out for the rest of the evening, but he could lie to himself, couldn’t he? 

He hummed a merry little tune and leaned back on his heels. His balance went out the window and Hypnos rocked back into the air without missing a beat, sitting down in the voluminous pillow of his comforter. Hands neatly folded behind his back. 

The boat turned the corner of Styx, right on its rigid little schedule. A creeping shadow whose details picked up in definition as it entered the light. Its captain, a statuesque monster in the back. 

Charon’s head perked up at the sight of Hypnos. He didn’t often come to visit at Charon’s shores, but every time he did it was a social call. 

Lucky Hypnos, Charon never turned him down. He was never too busy. 

Hypnos whipped his hand out from behind his back and held up the little sack. He dangled it in the air, its contents softly bouncing around the bag. 

Charon sighed, not out of resignation or defeat, but a relaxed sort. Happy to see Hypnos. A cloud of smoke seeped from his mouth and up into the dark air. 

“Hey Charon,” Hypnos said lazily as the ship pulled up. “I was just wondering if maybe you had a little time to chill out for a bit? You know, kick the old feet up and relax?” 

“Haaaa,” Charon said. 

“Permission to come aboard?” 

Charon gave a solemn nod and Hypnos floated into place. He delicately took a seat on the floor of the boat, foregoing the arranged seating, and Charon did not tell Hypnos to do otherwise. He pushed away from the dock and entered the quiet of Styx’s current. 

Hypnos liked riding in his brother’s skiff. It was nice and quiet. No one asking him to do anything, no demands, no responsibilities. Just a break. A mental moment. A bit of self care. He could curl up on the floor and there would be no barking orders for him to wake up. Just the gentle hum of his brother’s groans and the rock of the boat. 

“The house sure had gotten loud lately,” Hypnos said, peering over the edge and into the dark water. “Theres so many shades coming in and out and in and out. I didn’t know that mortals could die so much. And the construction is so loud. I can barely get a wink!” 

He whipped his head to look up at Charon. 

“Not like I sleep on the job or anything.” 

Charon waved him off and groaned. Hypnos smiled his little smile and drummed his fingers on the side, nestling down so that only his eyes peeked over the edge. 

They passed through Tartarus and through shadow. Hypnos’ ears popped as they descended ever deeper, sifting through a darkened wall of pure pitch. Hypnos stared lazily out into the darkness until his eyes went crossed and he saw static dance across them. He could have closed his eyes, but there wouldn’t be much difference. 

The shape of Erebus’ high walls loomed like monsters crawling out from under a bed. Gemstones glittered like stars in the ceiling, creating the facade of night. Rivulets of gold ran through the walls. Untouched and untapped by humankind. 

As more light seeped in and Hynos’ eyes adjusted, the boat came to a slow drift. Charon rested his oar against the bow and stepped deeper into the skiff. He settled himself on the floor next to Hypnos, his long legs stretching from one side of the boat to the next and still needing to bend to fit. His feet planted firmly against the wall. 

He held out his hand waiting. 

Hypnos shook the bag out into his empty palm. Tiny leafy green bulbs danced from the confines of the bag along with motes of debris that sprinkled across Charon’s open hand. Charon rolled them between his fingers like dice. 

“Haaaggh?” he asked. 

“I dunno,” Hypnos said with a little shrug. “Persephone grew them, she didn’t tell me what kind they are.” 

Charon shot him a look. Hypnos hiked his shoulders up. 

“I don’t think to ask about these things, we can’t all be you.” 

Charon had no eyes to roll, but somehow he still managed it. He reached into the confines of his robes and one by one took out his paraphernalia. A small gold grinder adorned with gems on the sides, arranging from rubies to sapphires to emeralds. A small glass pipe was laid next to it, inlaid with swirls of gold that matched the rivers in the walls. 

Charon took one of the bulbs delicately between his fingers and returned the rest to the bag. He placed it in the grinder with all the care of a sleeping infant and began working it back and forth. Charon always treated this like a ritual, like it was holy. Hypnos lulled into patience and watched his brother’s long fingers work. 

“Is there lots of construction going on here too?” Hypnos asked. He folded his knees to his chest, his arms around his knees, and tapped his feet against the wood. “I thought I saw some of the shades putting up more fountains or something.” 

“Hhhaaann,” Charon said. 

“They sure do get in the way.” 

“Mmmrrm.” 

“Zagreus has been busy ever since Hades left the repairs to him, changing up the decor and buying music for Orpheus, throwing money around like he’s made of the stuff.” 

Charon paused in his grind to look down at Hypnos in question. 

“Nnn?” he asked. 

“Yeah,” Hypnos said. “You didn’t know that? Zagreus has been giving the orders to fix some of this stuff up for a while now. Well. . . ‘fix.’” 

Charon paused frozen, parsing that fact, before grumbling irritably to himself and popping open the grinder. He pulled out a small gold pick to free some of the more packed leaves. 

“You can tell him all your thoughts and feelings on that next time he comes around,” Hypnos said. “Do you see him a lot?” 

“Hrrrm,” Charon grumbled, putting a little more force than was necessary. 

“You gotta I bet, I’ve seen you kill him a couple of times. You could go easy on him you know.” Hypnos leaned in closer to his brother. “Does he ever win?” 

Charon shot Hypnos a brief glance and a hiss of smoke. 

“You let him win don’t you?” 

Charon had absolutely nothing to say to that and began packing the pipe. Hypnos smiled to himself and wriggled in place, slapping his feet to a tune only he heard. They sat in the relative silence, normally shared between the two quiet brothers. The _drip drip drip_ of damp falling from stalactites into Sytx echoed through the caverns. 

Satisfied with his pack, Charon gently held the pipe to his mouth and summoned up a wisp of Prometheus’ gift. A small flame danced from his finger tip and he aimed it at the filled bowl. Hypnos watched in fascination, biting his lower lip in glee as his brother finished off the last steps of the ritual. 

Charon clamped the pipe between his teeth and took a wheezing breath in. His perpetual halo of haze sucked back into his form. He held it. And gently let out a soft cloud of smoke and essence. The ferryman sat still as his head slowly tilted back and he relaxed against the boat. 

Lazily he passed the pipe off to his brother. 

“Thank you,” Hypnos said in a clipped little manner. 

Hypnos was far less precious than his brother. His first hit was deep and ambitious and rather than a smooth exhale he descended into a fit of coughing. Charon lazily pat Hypnos’ back in an effort to help. It didn’t. 

“Oh. Oh. . .okay,” Hypnos said between coughs. “Persephone has been working over time.” 

“Huuuaah,” Charon said. 

“I do know what I’m doing, thank you very much,” Hypnos huffed and passed the pipe back. “You could learn a thing or two.” 

He half coughed, half spoke the last of his words. Charon huffed and took another puff. 

They split the bowl, passing the pipe back and forth, in their amicable silence, giving the drug its time to take effect. Hypnos couldn’t quite tell when it did, slipping from the usual dreamlike state he saw the world into a more dizzying one. Falling from near sleep into a different near sleep. He couldn’t tell when it hit Charon either. His brother was normally corpse still and silent and impossible to read, more so when Hypnos was compromised. 

“Do you think the gemstones have feelings?” Hypnos asked. 

Ah. There it was. 

Charon’s head flopped and hit the side of the boat, dangling as if it were too heavy. He gave his brother a flat stare. 

“I mean. . . no. Hear me out.” Hypnos raised his hands, looking blankly in the middle distance. “Brimstones. They’re people right? Well shades. Shades that got squished so hard that they turned into crystals.” 

Hypnos pressed his hands together and twisted this way and that, creating a small burning friction between his palms.

“And they’re alive and presumably have thoughts and feelings. Wouldn’t gemstones just be. . .” 

He held his hands up in the air, curled in little claws. His mouth pressed together in a pout, trying to find the right words. 

“The natural evolution of brimstones?” he said. “They’re just more compacted souls all angrily swirled together in an anger stone soup?”

Charon stared at Hypnos long and hard. Then slowly, ever so slowly, his gaze began to wander from Hypnos as the thought congealed in his head. 

“I’m right aren’t I?” Hypnos said, sitting up. “I mean, wouldn’t it hurt when we dig them out of the wall? Is using them for trade really just human trafficking?” 

Hypnos was oddly delighted by this revelation. 

Charon slowly looked back down to the grinder at his feet. He gently tapped at one of the gems that were lodged in the side. When it didn’t respond, he looked back to his brother and shook his head. 

“What if we don’t speak their language?” Hypnos insisted. 

Charon pat his brother on the head in three slow pats and let his hand sit there when he was done, promptly forgetting where he put it. Hypnos didn’t let the condescending appeasement bother him and enjoyed the weight of his brother’s hand on his head. He fell once again into silence, his mind still spinning with thoughts of rocks that could talk and what conversations they would have. A conversation that carried on in his head that he thought he was saying out loud. 

“Huuooaa,” Charon said, passing the pipe over. 

“Yeah. . .” Hypnos agreed. It was beginning to taste like burnt. 

Charon looked over to his brother. 

“Ggnnaa,” Charon said with more insistence. 

“No I feel you,” Hypnos said, his voice rounding out with smoke. “I get it. I understand.” 

Sated, Charon sat back again. He slumped further down the curve of the boat, the brim of his hat hitting the side and tipping up over his eyes. He folded his hands across his stomach, his thumbs twiddling against one another. 

Hypnos smiled over at his older brother. Charon had always been there. He didn’t hover, he wasn’t a best friend, he didn’t go out of his way to play with Hypnos, but whenever Hypnos needed him, he was there. He would always just _be_ there. Whenever Hypnos got in trouble or was hurt or just wanted someone to talk to, Charon somehow showed up right on time. 

And lately. . . there had been fewer and fewer people to talk to. 

Hypnos drew his knees up to his chest and loosely wrapped his arms around his legs. He held his wrist in a limp hold, locking his legs in place, and rested his cheek against his knees. He looked at Charon, the fearsome boatman, high and falling asleep in the base of his boat, feet sticking out over the otherside. 

He saw Zagreus a lot out there in the Underworld. He got to go out and interact and be in the thick of it. In the fray. 

Hypnos wondered with no small amount of melancholy. 

“Hey Charon?” he asked, his voice crackling with delicacy. 

“Mmrr?” Charon grumbled from under his hat. 

“Do you see Thanatos at all?” 

Charon looked up from under his hat. At seeing Hypnos’ heavy lidded gaze, just peeking out over his knees, Charon sat up a little straighter, brining his feet back inside the boat. 

“Does he come around?” Hypnos asked. 

Charon looked to Hypnos. Then aside. Then back again. He nodded slowly. 

“Do you. . .” Hypnos fiddled with his fingers and rested his chin on his knees. He focused on the details in the wood, the grain that swirled around in knots, the nails fixing the benches to the sides. His focus zooming in like a telescope on those tiny details. “Do you chat?” 

“Haaa. . .” Charon tried. 

Hypnos shot him a short mournful look. He wouldn’t accept condescension that time. 

Charon gave a single curt nod. 

A small smile twitched on Hypnos’ lips. He looked out over the boat again, failing to see the details. 

“He works so hard, you know,” he said to nothing and no one. To Charon who would listen. “He’s working _all_ the time. He’s so busy and he has no time for. . . for fun stuff anymore. He has no time for. . .” 

Hypnos looked down to his feet and folded one over the other, still wearing that tiny smile. 

“Even though you and Hermes help him out, he’s still got so much to do,” he said quietly. “He’s always just so. . . busy.” 

Hypnos shuffled his feet, putting the top on the bottom. 

"You're busy right?" he said into his knees. 

A firm hand gently clapped down on his shoulder. It pulsed once in a tight grip, letting Hypnos know he was there, not letting him float away. 

"I know he's good at his job. He's always on the employee of the month board. I mean how could he not, you've seen him work right?" The words came babbling forth line a waterfall. "He's always encouraging me to do a good job too! Well. . . not always. When he sees me. And more like telling me to actually do my job. . ." 

That hand tightened around his shoulder. 

"I guess I'm just not. . ." 

Hypnos pressed his smile into his knees. 

The water dripped. The caverns echoed. Waves rocked against the boat. Dank smoke filled the air in a haze of drab. 

"I see him in the House," Hypnos said into his legs. "It's not like he's not there. He just doesn't say hi. He does his work and stands in his corner and broods." 

Hypnos pulled his face into a comical frown to mimic his oh-so-serious brother, to lighten the mood. But unreadable Charon only looked on with concern in deep set eyes. A sight Hypnos had seen before, no matter how infrequently, and was never sure how to take it. 

He simply smiled. 

"Mom too," he said. ". . . Mother Nyx. Mom. She's stopped talking to me too." 

If anyone knew how that felt, Charon would. 

"Zagreus says it's because she wants me to do my job well by myself," Hypnos said trying not to sulk. "Which doesn't make sense. Hades yells at me, Mom ignores me, Thanatos lectures me, but I _do_ my job. My job is sleep! And I do _it!_ " 

He huffed out heavy breathes, his lips pressed together in that tight smile, his teeth grinding just behind it. He reached his hand out, slapping on the ground, until he found the pipe again. As he brought it to his lips, Charon's big hand wrapped around the side of his head and although the pressure was slight, it was enough to force limp Hypnos to lean against his brother. Hypnos could feel the tension in his brother, how tight his arm curled around Hypnos' body, the strain against his chest. 

Hypnos let out a cool relaxed breath of hazy smoke. As dream inducing as himself. 

"Gnnuuah," Charon said softly. "Huuuah." 

"I can't do that," Hypnos said sullenly. "She's my mother." 

He tilted his head to look his brother in the eye. 

"I still love her." 

He hadn't intended for it to be a barb, he never wanted to hurt or attack Charon, but the second it left his lips he realized the judgement he cast his way. Calling out the way Charon's relationship with their mother had soured. A small palpation of panic fluttered in Hypnos' chest.

"Oh," he said, blinking through the fog in his brain. "I didn't mean it like–" 

Charon just pressed Hypnos' head against his chest again and rested his chin atop Hypnos' crown of curls. Encapsulating him in safety and comfort. That there was nothing he could say and there was nothing he could do to ever hurt Charon. 

Charon's fingertips rubbed soothingly into Hypnos' scalp in small circles. A quiet hushing hiss eminated from deep within him. Hypnos' grip on the pipe went slack and it rolled across the floor. His eyelids dropped heavy, weighed down by more than his natural inclination. 

Hypnos slipped into relaxation. 

"I think Persephone grew the sleepy time kind," Hypnos muttered. "Would it be okay if I. . ." Hypnos yawned, long and loud. "Just closed my eyes for a bit?" 

"Mrrrm," Charon rumbled. 

Hypnos wriggled in place until he found just the right spot, pulled his comforter tighter around his shoulders, and closed his eyes. He leaned against his big brother, Charon who was never too busy, Charon who had always been there. 

As he slipped away into sleep, Charon picked up the pipe and finished it off.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't look at me 
> 
> Twitter: [OhNo_Hello](https://twitter.com/OhNo_Hello)  
> Tumblr: [ScrumpyLikesThings](https://scrumpylikesthings.tumblr.com/)


End file.
